The real world suddenly became quiet.
The elevator, which kept nagging, didn't have a mouth; it only had an electronic screen that played advertisements.
The construction team's trucks don't gather together to discuss wages; they just work in silence.
The mechanical ball that used to greet guests has lost its vitality and is now reciting fixed lines in a dull and uninteresting manner.
...
Xia and Qiu strolled along the street.
Xia Chuhe remarked, "Even with technological advancements, tools don't need to possess human consciousness; they only need the ability to complete tasks."
Li Qiusheng agreed.
Xia Chuhe asked, "Is the job of a switchboard operator boring?"
"boring."
"Wouldn't it be better to set up a certain procedure and let artificial intelligence do it?"
"yes!"
"So, Liu'er might not be human, but just an artificial intelligence?"
Li Qiusheng choked up. How could Liu'er not be human?
She defended Liu'er: "Sometimes, jobs that require communication can't be solved by artificial intelligence alone, so we still have to switch to human intervention. Liu'er is that human intervention."
"Whether it is or not, a simple check will tell."
...
Along with their jobs, they lost their cheap employee dormitories.
With nowhere else to go, Xia and Qiu temporarily stayed at Liu'er's house.
When Liu'er got off work and came home, she stood in front of Xia Chuhe and, with great emotion and clear pronunciation, relayed the merciless mockery from the mechanical citizens of Twin City.
Finally, I must add a comment: "Life in Twin Cities isn't as wonderful as outsiders imagine. Everyone is quite tired, and there's no extra compassion to give to others... Well, mainly because there's no extra money."
Having lived in Twin City for a few days, Xia Qiu and her companion couldn't help but nod in agreement.
Plan A failed, so Plan B is activated.
Xia Chuhe smiled: "Do you know about the flea effect?"
The flea effect is a psychological concept derived from animal experiments, representing self-limitation.
Fleas in nature can jump several meters high, but if you put them in a glass jar and cover it with a glass lid, they will jump lower and lower after repeatedly hitting the top. Even if you remove the lid, the fleas' jumping height will be limited to inside the glass jar.
Having learned about the flea effect from the database, Liu'er approached Xia Chuhe with a gloomy expression: "You mean I'm like a flea in a glass jar, having failed so many times that I subconsciously no longer believe I can succeed?"
Xia Chuhe spread his hands innocently: "I didn't say anything, I just asked if you knew about the flea effect."
Liu'er's expression was uncertain. After a long while, she stepped back and lay down on the mat: "Last time I dealt with the out-of-control car, my mechanical arm was injured. I can take the company's work injury leave tomorrow."
Having secured a holiday, staying home to rest is out of the question.
At the Space Experience Hall, Liu'er paid with credits with a sour expression, and the three of them stood on a high platform inside the hall.
"Are you ready?" Li Qiusheng rubbed his hands together. "I'm a little excited."
Xia Chuhe: "All done."
Liu'er didn't answer, but instead pushed off the ground with his feet and jumped up forcefully.
Without the interference of gravity, Liu'er bounced directly up and landed on the ceiling of the experience center.
With both hands supporting the ceiling, it slowly floated down to the ground.
"Boring. Didn't we say we were going to break the flea effect? What are we doing here? My money didn't grow on trees. It won't magically regenerate after I spend it."
Xia Chuhe smiled and said, "You'll find out soon enough."
While the two were talking, Li Qiusheng quietly climbed to the control panel and adjusted the gravity from 0 to the normal level.
Unaware of the danger, Liu'er remained unaffected and continued to float in the air.
Xia Chuhe looked at Li Qiusheng, and after receiving a look that was both affirming and worried, she jumped off the high platform...
Then, she floated in the air, unable to fall.
Xia Chuhe dove over to Liu'er's side like a swimmer and whispered, "Liu'er, do you know? We are actually in a space with normal gravity right now."
Liu'er quickly turned her head to look at the control panel, so fast that a soft "click" sound was heard.
Seeing Li Qiusheng standing by the control panel smiling at her, she panicked and fell to the ground with a thud.
Xia Chuhe, who was also suspended in the air, instantly felt the effect of gravity and suffered along with Liu'er.
Liu'er roared, "What are you doing messing around with? If you fall and get crippled, I'll have to spend money to replace the parts!"
Li Qiusheng innocently said, "I...I didn't touch anything..."
Liu'er ran over and saw that the gravity value on the control panel had been 0 the whole time.
Li Qiusheng was pretending to adjust the gravity, while Xia Chuhe was responsible for giving Liu'er psychological suggestions.
The reason Liu'er and Xia Chuhe fell was because Liu'er thought Li Qiusheng had adjusted the gravity.
Liu'er was panting heavily, too angry to speak.
She still didn't believe in the flea effect, stubbornly saying, "Just because something works for other things doesn't mean it works for things related to credit coins."
Xia Chuhe, supporting his back, limped out: "Who cares if it works or not? The equipment at the experience center malfunctioned, causing me to fall and get seriously injured. They have to compensate me! Let's go ask the boss for money!"
Liu'er: "?"
Sometimes, being too healthy isn't a good thing.
For example, at this moment, the owner of the experience center was unwilling to settle the matter with compensation. Instead, he meticulously found a doctor to examine Xia Chuhe and issue a certificate of injury.
Despite falling from a height of over two meters, Xia Chuhe didn't even twist his ankle.
Finally, the meticulously planned scam ended with Xia Chuhe receiving two hundred yuan in compensation and the doctor making a profit of two thousand yuan.
Undeterred, Xia Chuhe continued to devise other clever ways to swindle money, such as using "water-adulterated diesel," "scratched parts," and "malfunctioning hovercraft."
After a long day of hard work performing, I only earned a thousand when I got home and counted my earnings.
This meager income was far below Xia Chuhe's expectations.
What's even more disheartening is that Liu'er has absolutely no subconscious desire to get rich. No matter what methods Xia Chuhe uses to hint at it, Liu'er remains a poor wretch.
Li Qiusheng patted Xia Chuhe's shoulder to comfort her: "Boss, we only have 60 left after working for a day. We've earned enough today."
Liu'er pouted: "A thousand a day, save it up, and we'll talk about rules after a hundred days."
After being slapped by Li Qiusheng, Xia Chuhe raised his droopy eyelids and said, "Liu'er, do you think if I were beaten up for no reason, the person who beat me up would have to pay a lot of money in compensation?"
Liu'er's eyebrows almost knitted together and danced: "You have to compensate me at least a little bit, right? You're really ruthless!"
Xia Chuhe's ruthless scheme to stage an accident was abruptly cut in half.
Because of yesterday's glorious deeds, the shops in Twin City seemed to have gotten wind of it early on. As soon as they saw Xia Chuhe and Li Qiusheng approaching, they pretended to close their doors or said they were full, in short, they refused to serve them.
Even if Xia Chuhe wanted to provoke a passerby, they would avoid him like the plague...
Fortunately, there was Liu'er, an inside man, in Mechanical Citizen. It turned out that Xia Chuhe's actions yesterday made several business owners feel that something was wrong. After comparing their information, they posted her behavior online to warn everyone to be careful not to be scammed.
Plan B failed completely, but fortunately Xia Chuhe had already come up with Plan C in advance.
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